CONCERNING S. METRAS, OR METRANUS, MARTYR AT ALEXANDRIA.
Year 249.
CommentaryMetranus, or Metras, Martyr at Alexandria (S.)
[1] S. Metranus, or Metras, called Μητρᾶς by Eusebius, is venerated by the Roman Church on the day before the Kalends of February, though (remarkably) unknown to the Greek Calendars. Concerning him, Usuard: "At Alexandria, the natalis of the Blessed Metranus the Martyr; who, when he refused to utter impious words at the command of the pagans, The feast of S. Metranus on 31 January. they crushed his whole body with clubs, and piercing his face and eyes with sharp reeds, they drove him outside the city with torments, and there they drove out with stones the spirit that remained in him." The same is found in the published Bede, Ado, Notker, and Bellinus; similar accounts in the Roman Martyrology, Galesinius, and Canisius; Maurolycus, the old Roman Martyrology, Felicius, the Florarium, and other MSS. also make mention of him.
[2] The MS. of S. Riquier records him on 30 January in these words: "At Alexandria, of S. Metranus the Martyr." But Maurolycus records him on 19 February: "At Alexandria, of SS. Julian, commemoration on other days, Eunus, Macarius, Epimachus, Alexander, Metranus, Apollonia, Ammonia, Cointa, with another X Martyrs under Decius." But all of these belong to other days. The same are found on 20 February in the Cologne Martyrology, the MSS. of S. Maximin and S. Riquier, and the Florarium; and in a certain more recent MS. on 27 February, on the occasion of SS. Julian and Eunus, whose feast day is observed on that day.
[3] S. Metras was killed in the persecution of Decius—not yet indeed stirred up by his edicts, since he had not yet assumed the imperial power, but already set in motion at Alexandria by a preliminary storm of demons, year of martyrdom, as will presently be clear from Eusebius, while the most pious Emperors Philip were still alive, whom Decius stripped of both the empire and their lives in the year of the city 1001—or, if you reckon the beginning of the year from the Kalends of January rather than from the Parilia, 1002—the year of Christ 249, in which same year the martyrdom of S. Metras appears to have occurred, if indeed it took place on 31 January. Eusebius commemorates it in bk. 6 of the Ecclesiastical History, ch. 34, as follows:
[4] "Dionysius (Bishop of Alexandria, who is venerated on 17 November), in a letter to Fabius, Bishop of Antioch, describes the contests of those who consummated their martyrdom at Alexandria under Decius, in the following manner: 'The persecution was not set in motion by some imperial edict, but preceded it by a whole year. For when a certain prophet and architect of the evils that later befell that city (whoever he was) came there, he stirred up the multitude of the pagans against us, torments. having urged them most vehemently to defend their ancestral superstitions. At his instigation and encouragement they seized every license for committing whatever crime they pleased, considering the only piety and true worship of the demons to be raging against the slaughter and blood of our people. First, therefore, they seized a certain old man named Metras and ordered him to utter impious words. When he refused, they beat his body with clubs, pierced his face and eyes with very sharp reeds, and finally, having led him to the outskirts, they overwhelmed him with stones.'" So Eusebius. In agreement with this is what Nicephorus Callistus writes, bk. 5, ch. 30, who calls him an admirable old man and reports that not only was his body cruelly beaten with clubs, his face torn with sharp reeds, and his eyes pierced, but also the inner parts of his body were torn apart and lacerated. He had a church dedicated to his name at Alexandria, as is clear from the Life of S. John the Almsgiver, 23 January, ch. 11, no. 68.